Tourism in Israel
Israel recorded a total of 4 million tourists in 2018, ranking 66th in the world in absolute terms.That smaller countries regularly perform lower in a comparison of the absolute number of guests, is obvious. By putting the tourist numbers in relation to the population of Israel, the result is much more comparable picture: With 0.46 tourists per resident, Israel ranked 95th in the world. In Western Asia, it ranked 10th.
Israel generated around 8.07 billion US Dollar in the tourism sector alone. This corresponds to 2.0 percent of its the gross domestic product and approximately 6 percent of all international tourism receipts in Western Asia.
A global comparison can be found here › International tourism
Back to overview: Israel
The most popular cities in Israel for international travelers are Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. In 2018, Jerusalem ranked 61st among the world's most popular cities with 3.93 million tourists. Tel Aviv was in 79th place with 2.78 million tourists.
On average, each of the tourists arriving in 2018 spent about 1,750 US Dollars. Conversely, the inhabitants of Israel spend only around 1,029 dollars a year when they themselves spend vacations abroad.
Development of the tourism sector in Israel from 1995 to 2018
The following chart shows the number of tourist arrivals registered in Israel each year. Anyone who spends at least one night in the country but does not live there for more than 12 months is considered a tourist. Insofar as the survey included the purpose of the trip, business trips and other non-tourism travel purposes have already been excluded. The number of people passing through within the same day, and e.g. crew members of ships or flights are also not considered as tourists in most countries. If the same person travels in and out more than once within the same year, each visit counts again.Data in the chart are given in millions of tourists. The red line represents the average of all 18 countries in Western Asia.
Revenues in tourism
In 1995, tourism revenues amounted to 3.49 billion USD, or about 3.5 percent of the gross national product. This corresponded to about 2.22 million tourists at that time and roughly 1,576 USD per person. Within 23 years, the country's dependence on tourism has decreased substantially. In the last year of the survey, the revenue now amounts to 8.07 billion USD, accounting for 2.2 percent of the gross national product. Each visitor now spends an average of 1,959 USD for his holiday in Israel.
All data for Israel in detail
| Year | Number of tourists | Receipts | % of GNP | Receipts per tourist |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | 2.22 m | 3.49 bn $ | 3.5 % | 1,576 $ |
| 1996 | 2.10 m | 3.51 bn $ | 3.2 % | 1,670 $ |
| 1997 | 2.01 m | 3.74 bn $ | 3.3 % | 1,861 $ |
| 1998 | 1.94 m | 3.60 bn $ | 3.1 % | 1,853 $ |
| 1999 | 2.31 m | 4.80 bn $ | 4.1 % | 2,076 $ |
| 2000 | 2.42 m | 4.61 bn $ | 3.5 % | 1,908 $ |
| 2001 | 1.20 m | 2.85 bn $ | 2.2 % | 2,386 $ |
| 2002 | 861,900 | 2.43 bn $ | 2.0 % | 2,815 $ |
| 2003 | 1.06 m | 2.47 bn $ | 1.9 % | 2,326 $ |
| 2004 | 1.51 m | 2.91 bn $ | 2.1 % | 1,931 $ |
| 2005 | 1.90 m | 2.75 bn $ | 1.9 % | 1,445 $ |
| 2006 | 1.83 m | 3.67 bn $ | 2.4 % | 2,011 $ |
| 2007 | 2.07 m | 4.23 bn $ | 2.4 % | 2,048 $ |
| 2008 | 2.57 m | 5.27 bn $ | 2.4 % | 2,049 $ |
| 2009 | 2.32 m | 4.92 bn $ | 2.4 % | 2,121 $ |
| 2010 | 2.80 m | 5.62 bn $ | 2.4 % | 2,005 $ |
| 2011 | 2.82 m | 5.87 bn $ | 2.2 % | 2,081 $ |
| 2012 | 2.89 m | 6.17 bn $ | 2.4 % | 2,136 $ |
| 2013 | 2.96 m | 6.58 bn $ | 2.2 % | 2,220 $ |
| 2014 | 2.93 m | 6.59 bn $ | 2.1 % | 2,251 $ |
| 2015 | 2.80 m | 6.57 bn $ | 2.2 % | 2,349 $ |
| 2016 | 2.90 m | 6.59 bn $ | 2.1 % | 2,271 $ |
| 2017 | 3.61 m | 7.58 bn $ | 2.1 % | 2,097 $ |
| 2018 | 4.12 m | 8.07 bn $ | 2.2 % | 1,959 $ |
All data correspond to the information of the World Tourism Organization.
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